Pollstar 2024 Year End Analysis: Industry Remains Strong & Steady, Taylor Swift & Coldplay Set All-Time Touring Records

After two and a half years of wild-fire growth throughout much of the live entertainment industry, it stands to reason that at some point there would be a return to Earth, a leveling out after unprecedented growth. With our final data-crunching complete for 2024, all indications are that this year was one of stability coming off what Pollstar termed a “Golden Age of Live,” which began at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 and picked up steam through 2023.

See all of Pollstar’s Year End content Monday, Dec. 16.

2024 still saw record-setting worldwide grosses, albeit a modest 3.62 percent increase to $9.5 billion for the Top 100 Worldwide Tours as well as a 3.91 percent increase in average ticket price to $135.92 and a 5.7 percent increase in the volume of shows reported. Other metrics, including those for total ticket sales, average ticket sales and average gross, showed relatively small declines compared to 2023 (see By The Numbers below). All of which made for a plateauing of sorts, which shouldn’t alarm anyone. Since 2019, the last full year of live touring data before the pandemic shutdown, this industry’s total revenues on the Top 100 Worldwide Charts grew a whopping 71 percent. Just to be to sustain that level of growth year-over-year-over-year is a win for this business.

This year, too, the industry witnessed history. The two top tours of all time – one by gross and the other by tickets sold – were out on the road simultaneously and significantly in international territories. Taylor Swift’s juggernaut, “The Eras Tour,” smashed the all-time touring record with an estimated $2.2 billion gross. At the same time, Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres World Tour” sold over 10.3 million tickets— the most ever by any artist in the history of live. The run also grossed over $1.14 billion thus far and is the second highest grossing tour of all-time—and they still have 48 more shows slated for 2025. We are thrilled to have Coldplay on the cover of Pollstar’s 2024 year-end issue.

Yes, there were some market corrections this year, too. We saw more festival and tour cancellations in 2024 than at any time since the 2020 shutdown and the Great Recession (2007-2009) some 15 years earlier. Though, keep in mind, the volume of shows for the 2024 Worldwide Top Tours increased 5.7 percent and many, many festivals found great success. The post-pandemic stadium business remained robust. The perennial question of who would replace stadium rockers was again answered resoundingly by pop, Latin, country, K-pop, EDM, and yes, still rock acts, and everywhere across the globe. It was similar for the many newly-minted arena stars.

Global touring found new markets and expanded aggressively from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur to Lima and far beyond with sounds from these regions and others now coming to these shores. While average ticket prices continued hitting record highs, premium took on new dimensions—literally and figuratively—as buildings offered higher quality amenities and multi-hued seating maps further validating the value of live and increasing revenues.

Pushing the envelope further was innovative programming. Massive pop-up shows in 2024 included unannounced shows by Fred again.. and Skrillex unexpectedly playing outside San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza and Kendrick Lamar’s “The Pop Out: Ken & Friends” Juneteenth pop-up at the Kia Forum days after selling out clean. These events turned upside down traditional precepts of presales, on-sales and dynamic pricing with fans’ powerful thirst for top artists transcending traditional business practices.

Perhaps no single artist this year personified the promise and disruption of artist discovery than Chappell Roan. This past summer she blazed a supersonic trail. She went from being dropped by her label pre-pandemic to becoming the hottest artist of 2024 propelled by brilliantly crafted songs and a social media frenzy in what seemed a matter of weeks. Suddenly, all her shows were transformed into under-plays and her underbill festival slots became daytime headlining sets.

And for anyone who missed it, Madonna’s spectacular grand finale of her “Celebration Tour” on May 4th in Rio De Janeiro drew the largest gathering ever for a stand-alone concert with 1.6 million ebullient fans converting the stunning Copacabana Beach into a banging dance party.

Smashing envelopes and innovating new pathways for artists and fans alike to thrive were hallmarks of 2024.

2024 BY THE NUMBERS

2024’s worldwide gross for the top 100 touring artists hit $9.5 billion—that’s a 3.62 percent increase over the collective gross from the same number of artists last year, when ticket revenue topped out at $9.17 billion. So, for the first time in history, global grosses have topped the $9 billion threshold in two consecutive years.

It was also the second year in a row with the top 10 tours collectively surpassing $3 billion in sales – the only two years that’s ever happened. It is a very healthy indicator that the industry is retaining its value, and that while 2022 and 2023 were high marks, they weren’t anomalies. For perspective on this industry’s historic post-pandemic growth, the increase of the total Top 100 Worldwide grosses from 2019, the last full year of touring before the pandemic, to this year, was a massive 71.7 percent explosion from $5.54 billion to $9.5 billion. A Golden Age indeed.

Fueling monumental grosses, of course, have been equally monumental ticket prices – a maxim which some argue has finally seen the live industry tapping into its true market value. The average ticket price in 2024 is the only other metric that actually saw growth in a year-to-year comparison from 2023. This year’s average price for the top 100 touring artists is $135.92. That beats 2023’s $130.81 average by 3.9 percent, yet it is also the smallest percentage increase of the past three years. Last year’s average topped the previous year by 23 percent, while 2022’s price grew by 20 percent.

For more historical perspective: 2024’s $135.92 average is a 41.3% increase over 2019’s $96.17 average ticket price.

Decreases in the global box-office numbers for the Top 100 Worldwide tours were seen in three areas: the number of tickets sold as well as the averages per show in both ticket sales and gross. But in this period of stability, there are no catastrophic drops in box-office results. No percentage change in any metric is as much as six percent, either up or down, in the year-end accounting.

The total number of tickets sold by the top 100 is below the total from the previous year, but not by much. Not that 190,360 is typically seen as a small number but, considering that it is the difference between this year’s worldwide ticket count of 69,906,367 and the 2023 total of 70,096,727, that figure represents a decrease of 0.27 percent.

Certainly, it is the smallest of these global year-end percentage changes. On the other end of the spectrum, the decrease for the average number of tickets sold per show is the largest. Live events in 2024 averaged 17,075 sold seats per show; compared to last year’s 18,103 per-show average, it is a 5.68 percent drop.

Finally, the average gross per show in 2024 totals $2,320,862 for the top 100 worldwide artists, reflecting a decrease of 2 percent compared to last year’s $2,368,107 average gross.

2024’s TOP TEN WORLDWIDE TOURING ARTISTS

While over the past two years great praise and superlatives were rightfully bestowed upon Taylor Swift and her “Eras Tour,” it is difficult to grasp just how momentous her record-smashing tour is and how much it’s impacted the concert industry and the many ancillary revenues associated with the tour. Aside from the astronomical numbers – topping $1 billion in grosses in back-to-back years – selling more than 10 million tickets – the 35-year-old singer-songwriter and cultural icon was a primary force behind the $9 billion box-office bonanza accumulated in each of the past two years. After all, her tour’s 2024 gross represents almost 11 percent of the overall gross for the top 100 artists. And she had the same effect last year. Her 2023 gross was even more than 11 percent of the final 100-tour gross.

It should also be noted that Pollstar’s box-office figures for Swift are estimated totals, since her actual ticket sales figures were not reported in either of the past two years. Estimates were determined by many factors including venue capacities and past boxoffice activity as well as contemporary ticket pricing.

But the 14-time Grammy Award winner was not the only marquee name at concert venues around the globe in 2024. The nine other headliners ranked highest on the top 100 chart in 2024 are all powerhouse superstars in their own right. And throughout the year, each accumulated nine-digit grosses from their touring.

Following Swift with the second-highest worldwide ranking is Coldplay and their global juggernaut “Music of the Spheres World Tour,” itself a record-breaking force of nature with more than $1.14 billion in grosses since launching in 2022 and over 10.3 million tickets sold – the most of any headliner in history for a single tour. And the tour has 48(!) more dates announced for 2025 as they continue to set what could become an untouchable attendance record.

This year, the group racked up more than $421.7 million at the box office from 3,293,480 sold tickets at 54 stadium concerts in Asia, Europe and Oceania to score the No. 2 ranking on the worldwide top touring artists chart. The tour’s biggest gross was a whopping $49.5 million from a four-night run at Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, Aug. 29-Sept. 2. The combined ticket count there was 329,200 and also ranks as the group’s largest attendance at a single venue in 2024. Their longest engagement this year was a six-show run at Singapore’s National Stadium with 321,113 tickets sold, Jan. 23-31, and a box-office take of $43.4 million.

P!NK is third among the top 10 headliners with grosses from two tours totaling $367.3 million and worldwide attendance reaching 2.7 million at 67 performances. Her “Summer Carnival” stadium tour that kicked off in June 2023 resumed this year in February and began with a run through Australia and New Zealand followed by Europe and North America through mid-November. Then, a separate arena tour dubbed “P!NK Live 2024” played cities in the U.S. and Canada throughout the fall. Both tours supported her ninth studio album, Trustfall, released in February 2023 through RCA Records.

Four of the top 10 fall in the $200 million range in concert grosses beginning with Luis Miguel at No. 4 with over $261.5 million from 113 reported shows on his world tour. Then, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band grossed $251.3 million from 1.7 million sold tickets on their world tour to score the No. 5 spot.

The Rolling Stones’ “Hackney Diamonds Tour” follows in the sixth position with a $235.1 million gross from 18 North American concerts, and Bad Bunny’s “Most Wanted Tour” at No. 7 played arenas in the U.S. and Canada during the first half of 2024 and grossed $210.9 million. His $279.98 average ticket price is one of the largest among the top 100 artists.

The final three headliners in the top 10 each topped the $100 million mark in concert grosses during the year, beginning with Zach Bryan at No. 8. His $199.2 million box-office haul came from 1.05 million tickets sold at 49 concerts. Then at No. 9, Metallica scored $179.4 million from 1.5 million tickets at 24 reported concerts, while Madonna lands in the top 10 with ticket revenue totaling $178.8 million with a 64-show attendance of 856,247.

THE NORTH AMERICAN LIVE SCENE

In North America, the year-end number crunching tells a different story than that seen in the global box-office figures. In all but one metric, 2024 totals fall short of the numbers achieved one year earlier, but, again, nothing is calamitous. While there are drops across the board, none reach 10 percent.

The overall gross for the top 100 touring artists in North American venues is $6.18 billion in 2024, 6.79 percent less than the 2023 total of $6.63 billion. The average gross per concert is $1.86 million for the past year, which reflects a larger drop of 8.78 percent. In 2023, the per-show gross average was $2.04 million.

Ticket tallies show slightly larger decreases than the percentage changes seen in North American grosses. The total sold-ticket count is 45,306,074 for the top 100 tours, representing a 7.17 percent decline compared with last year’s 48,806,777.

The largest decline, though, is found in the average number of tickets sold. That figure is 13,634 for 2024 and reflects a 9.16 percent decrease from the 15,008-ticket average in the previous year.

The final metric, the average ticket price, is the only one that saw upward movement in the North American year-end tallies. The top 100 had an average ticket price of $136.45, which tops last year’s average of $135.88 by a mere 0.42 percent. That is growth, yes, but this year’s increase is far less than anything seen in the past two years, as was also the case with the global results. Last year’s average ticket was 21.9 percent higher than 2022’s price. And the increase was even more pronounced in the previous year as 2022’s price beat 2021’s average ticket price by 28 percent

IT’S ALL ABOUT LOCATION

Where a show is happening is just about as important as who is playing. Certainly, concert venues are always a major part of the live experience, and 2024’s top-ranked venues reflect great diversity with longtime facilities adding to their historical traditions and newer buildings staking their own claim.

Among stadiums and outdoor concert sites, the No. 1-ranked venue, by both gross and ticket sales, is the newly renovated and perennial chart topper Estadio GNP Seguros, formerly Foro Sol, in Mexico City. Located within the confines of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack, itself a ranked venue based primarily on multiple festivals held on the grounds, the stadium takes the top ranking even though it was inactive for half of the year during its renovation. From 28 shows, the venue racked up a box-office haul of $144.4 million from 1.6 million tickets.

The stadium staged 28 concerts during the year including four by heavy metal legend Metallica with attendance recorded at 253,370 during a concert engagement in September. Grosses from the band’s four sellouts reached a whopping $24.7 million. Also, with over 200,000 tickets sold was the group RBD with a four-night event of their own at the stadium late in 2023 before the venue makeover. They drew 229,970 fans and grossed just under $20 million.

While it didn’t make this year’s tally, it’s worth mentioning Adele’s pop-up stadium show this past August for “Adele In Munich,” a 10-show residency in Germany, which redefined the meaning of a temporary venue. It sold 730,000 tickets while creating, and disassembling, an 80,000-capacity stadium-specific for the occasion fit for a true superstar.

Among arenas, there are two No. 1 venues, one topping the chart ranked by gross, and another heading up the top 200 determined by ticket sales. The newbie among the two is Sphere in Las Vegas, just over one year old but a major force in the live industry since its opening night. The venue has the highest gross of any arena, with $367.2 million on record from 1,136,179 tickets sold at 70 shows. U2, Dead & Company, Eagles and Phish played multiple shows at the venue during the 2024 chart year, and each scored a ranking on the Top Residencies chart.

Madison Square Garden in New York City claims the top arena ranking based on ticket sales with 2,001,610 sold during the year at 142 performances. Grosses from those shows reached $270.5 million, a total second only to Sphere’s gross among the top-ranked arenas. The top draw was comedian Sebastian Maniscalco who performed for 93,561 fans during a five-night run in September. And, Phish, also one of the top ticket sellers during the year, moved 71,740 tickets for the jam band’s traditional four-night New Year’s Eve run last December.

Among theaters ranked on the year-end charts, another Manhattan venue claims the top ranking, but in both tickets and gross. Radio City Music Hall is No. 1 in both metrics with 1,523,541 tickets sold for a gross of $151,881,268. The venue’s traditional holiday classic “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” was the major contributor to both of those figures, of course, accounting for 70.6 percent of the tickets and 74.9 percent of the gross.

Aside from the Rockettes, though, the venue also welcomed an array of concert acts on the famed stage throughout the year. The top draw among them was Barry Manilow, who played two five-show engagements in 2024 and sold a total of 49,232 tickets for a combined gross of $6.5 million. The pop veteran appeared at the theater from April 17 through April 21, then returned for a second run of dates, Oct. 9 through Oct. 13.

The top amphitheater of the year, also by both tickets and gross, is Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. The Denver-area venue grossed $74.5 million from 972,954 sold tickets at 115 performances. The top box-office results came from two bands. The Avett Brothers had the highest gross of $2.7 million at three concerts, July 5-7. Then, the largest ticket count was 28,234 for Widespread Panic, June 21-23.

MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston is the top club, also in both metrics, with 469,015 tickets sold for a gross of $28.5 million. Sting had the top gross of $1.18 million at his two shows in October, while the most tickets were sold for Andrew Schulz last January. His three shows moved 11,004 tickets.